Small retailers increasingly fill vacancies at malls

Small,
independent retailers, many of them mom-and-pops selling offbeat items,
are increasingly popping up in shopping malls that have historically
been filled by big brand-name retailers such as the Gap, Foot Locker and
Victoria’s Secret.

“We’ve
lost some big boxes to bankruptcies, and that’s opened up a lot of
vacancies in our properties,” said Greg Maloney, president and CEO of
Jones Lang LaSalle Retail, which manages more than 98 million square
feet of retail space in 350 malls and other properties. “We’re taking a
look at anything to generate traffic.”